Another idea -- guest editorials

[sweetjazz]

One way to try to win public support against this bill is by sending editorial submissions to newspapers. I have written one and sent it to the Washington Post (a bit ambitious, but I thought I would go for it all).

When writing an editorial, my advice would be to:
* Get your facts straight. Of course your presentation of them may be a bit biased, but make sure you are telling the public accurate information.
* Be passionate, but try to do so while developing a logical flow to your submission.
* Remember that you are writing to a general audience, so you have to inform them of the basics of this legislation; don't assume that they are following this story as closely as you are.
* Make sure you carefully read your draft, correcting spelling/grammatical errors and clarifying any phrases that are awkward or unclear. Also, be sure that your argument is really going to help win support for your cause -- often having some people read it with a critical eye first is a very good idea.

In my opinion, contacting senators is likely to be a frivolous exercise given how government operates today. I think a more effective strategy is to try to argue to the public that this bill is a sleazy attempt to restrict our freedoms while satisfying the interests of lobbyists in Washington. The worse the public perceives this bill, the less likely the Senate will be to touch it.

[LearnedfromTV]

I am working on an editorial as well. I haven't decided where to send it or how to "justify" it - I would think letters to the editor regrading recent articles get more of a look than guest editorials about an otherwise random topic.

Is there any resource that compiles major newspaper coverage of the legislation to make it easier to reference a related article published by a paper?

[plaster8]

At the newspaper I work for (not a major metro -- our circulation is about 40,000) a letter to the editor would have a far better shot of being published than an unsolicited guest editorial.

The key there is "unsolicited." If you want to write a guest editorial, my advice would be to contact the editorial page editor of your newspaper and make a pitch. Basically, tell them what you'd like to do, give a little background on yourself and why you are qualified to write on the subject. And make sure you tell them why this topic would be of interest to their readers. They may well ask you to write it up so they can consider it.